The present invention relates to a parking assistance apparatus and a parking assistance method, which assist a driving operation of a driver at the time when the driver parks a vehicle.
Heretofore, as a parking assistance apparatus that assists a driving operation when a vehicle is parked, such an apparatus as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2005-239048 has been known. This conventional parking assistance apparatus synthesizes images around the vehicle, which are taken by a plurality of on-board cameras, to thereby create a bird's eye image, draws a graphic form of the vehicle at a position of the vehicle on this bird's eye image, draws a parking frame at a target parking position set by a driver of the vehicle, and displays the graphic form of the vehicle and the parking frame on a display device, thereby allows the driver of the vehicle to easily grasp a course from the current position of the vehicle to the target parking position.